Acoustic Magic @ Revolver with Michael Paynter and friends

I had no idea Revolver was that small.

For years, I've heard of gigs happening at "Revolver Upstairs", but I'd never actually made it there until last Wednesday night.

It's roughly the size of a large lounge room, perhaps like one you'd find in a house that has a fully stocked bar and stage in their lounge room.

Ok, so logistics are not my speciality, but still, I think you'd be hard-pressed to fit more than a hundred people in there* (though I get the feeling it's the type of place that does exactly that, frequently).

In any case, it looked fairly busy when I arrived, in that all the couches were taken and they were fresh out of leaning space at the bar. In comparison to later, when Michael Paynter finally emerged, however, it was positively spacious.

*Edit: Did I mention logistics are not my strong suit? I've discovered that the Revolver bandroom in fact has a capacity of 320 people, and, given that almost every square inch of space was occupied by the end of the night, there must have been close that many packed in - the point I was trying to make was that it certainly felt like a very intimate gig, despite my complete inability to even roughly estimate a headcount ;-) 

Jordan Clarey - 19 years old and well on his way... 

Photo: Jordan Clarey 

It's a shame that more of Michael's audience couldn't have arrived sooner, myself included, because his first support act, Jordan Clarey, is clearly a rising star. I arrived half-way through what turned out to be his last number, so he's another act I'll need to catch properly another day.

Apparently Jordan is auditioning for X-Factor this weekend, so, with some trepidation, I wish him all the best.

I'm hesitant only because, with his youth and his pin-up worthy image, he could look dangerously like pop fodder to anyone looking to make some quick money out of "the next big thing", when he could otherwise be laying the groundwork for a more long-term music career, that is rarely helped by being moulded and "reworked" and thrust into the national spotlight too soon.

After all, Justin Bieber's backers swear up and down that he's an extremely talented musician underneath all those layers of artificial choreography, stylised image and highly-processed music, and I suspect it to be true. However now, despite all of his - albeit remarkable - success, the manufactured "pop sensation" that is the "Justin Bieber" the world knows has become the butt of most musicians' jokes (Paynter included).

But I digress.

Listening to some of the tracks off Jordan's EP, "Calm Before the Storm", coupled with what I saw of his performance on Wednesday night, I believe he's well on his way to a very successful music career, one way or the other, and I look forward to hearing more.

Selena Cross - sounds of Silence... 

With a very early morning looming for me, I was initially a bit grumpy that I had to wait almost another hour to see Michael, but by her second number, a beautiful ballad called "Your Colour Blue", Selena Cross had already won me over.

Photo: Selena Cross
(album cover, "The Other Side") 

She shared some "family favourites", starting with the uplifting "I'm Not Lost", a song her young son was apparently singing along to with great fervour during rehearsal, followed by her mum's favourite, "Travelling Warrior", and finally "My Old Man and the Sea", which she wrote for her father.

When you realise that someone is about to cover a song as incredibly popular as Adele's "Someone Like You", it's a strange and not altogether terribly pleasant feeling, but Selena put her own energy into the song, giving it almost a country vibe, and ended up doing it very well.

In fact, inventive covers seemed to be the order of the night, with all of them being a pleasure to listen to.

Selena's last number of the set was "Silence", a beautiful track that demonstrated her talents on vocals and keys, not to mention substantial her song-writing ability.

So the over-sized lounge room was filled to capacity when Michael Paynter finally took to the stage, close to 10pm.

Michael Paynter - part Elvis, part Farnsie, all muso...

Photo: Michael Paynter 

At the start of the year, I had no idea who Michael Paynter was. I only learnt about him when Iva Davies introduced him during the Icehouse concert that I went to last month and he did a fabulous job on vocals for "Man of Colours" - no mean feat, given that I couldn't really imagine anyone except Iva singing that song.

I now realise that he's had considerable success over the years, seemingly along with a few roadblocks, and, although the first thing that struck me when he opened with "Shadows" was how much he sounded like John Farnham, I'm reluctant to go on about it, given that it seems to be the first thing most music writers point out.

Then again, being constantly compared to one of the most successful Australian artists of all time must surely have an upside.

The Internet is not being very helpful in providing me with an accurate discography or history for Michael, but the most important element seems to be that he released an album in December of last year called Money On Your Tongue, from which he drew several songs, including "Novacaine" and "Fake Away", as well the title track itself, for his acoustic performance.

Evidently a massive Elvis fan, he also shared with us one of the covers from the album, namely his re-imagined version of Elvis Presley's "Devil In Disguise".

In introducing the cover, he spoke of how valuable the process of re-inventing a classic song could be; stripping it down, working on it, rebuilding it, etc... He suggested that in the end, you either end up with "a musical black hole of crap" or something really special. Thankfully, on this occasion, he came up with the latter - an almost haunting version that delivered the message of the song in a way that allowed me to appreciate it much more.

He also delivered a new single which was called "Weary Stars". He obviously has plans for it, including making it a big number during his upcoming regional tour, and I absolutely see the potential for it becoming an outstanding hit live. It was one of my highlights of Wednesday night and, although I don't think any recording could do it justice, I did find a good quality clip of it to share to give you an idea.

There's a very strong blues influence in Michael's work, which was most evident in his very impressive cover of the classic Little Walter / Elvis Presley song, "My Babe".

Along with his band (that consisted of another guitarist, bassist and back-up vocals), he also covered "Man Of Colours", which of course I'd hoped he'd do, given how I came to discover him. Again, it was a respectful and enjoyable cover, adapted appropriately for what was a completely different set-up and environment.

"I Forgot How To Love" was another touching number, made particularly special by Michael's announcement that it had been short-listed for the 2011 International Song Writing Competition, with winners to be announced next month.

So after a long and enjoyable set, he announced that he was going off stage, was going to take a few breaths, and then return. As we clapped and cheered, he did exactly that, before explaining that an encore was actually in his contract - a bizarre mutation of what it's intended to be, but, as far as this audience was concerned, he was coming back either way, so it all worked out.

His last song seemed like it was going to be "Freedom's Not For Me", another beautiful song from "Money On Your Tongue", yet, as the applause lingered, he started playing again, this time with another really bluesy guitar riff, and sat on it for a while until he revealed what, for me, was the absolute stand-out piece of the night.

Unfortunately the clip missed the start, but you get the idea.

Covering Michael Jackson is a dicey option for any musician, but this blues-infused, acoustic version of "The Way You Make Me Feel" was absolutely magic, and by the end I was close to reverting back to the sixteen year old version of me who saw MJ live all those years ago. Thankfully, for all concerned, I managed to restrain myself.

He is one of very few artists I would say this about, but I'd be very curious to see him tackle a Prince song (not necessarily one of his chart hits).

Wednesday had been a long one, work-wise, and, considering the next day started with a 7:30am committee meeting, I had very nearly skipped this excursion to Revolver altogether. But, remembering a conversation I'd had with a certain gardener (of sorts) recently, I decided to push myself into going. So off I went, flower in my hair and all, and was rewarded with a terrific night of local talent and acoustic loveliness.

Thanks to Jordan, Selena, Michael and all of the musicians (and the sound tech, who we were told made a great sacrifice to be there when the original sound guy got stranded in transit!) for transforming our Wednesday night into something really special.

Cheap Fakes - the real deal!

picture: Cheap Fakes 

So I was way overdue for a pub gig.

I've been going to loads of live events recently, but most of them have been in big venues, fixed seating, book in advance, etc...

Certainly all worth it. But it occurred to me that it had been some time since I last just showed up at a bar to see a local band perform in the back room (or rather, upstairs, in the case of Bar Open in Fitzroy).

So the Cheap Fakes aren't Melbourne local, but they're Queensland local and that's close enough for me.

Furthermore, this was their first gig in Melbourne, so the night had the sort of vibe about it that comes when a new band is on the rise and are celebrating an album launch with those in the know.

That is, until "those in the know" suddenly became a small army that stormed the tiny dance floor.

It wasn't until later in the night that it finally registered that I was surrounded by Queenslanders. See, most people down here don't know about the Cheap Fakes, but up north they're kind of a big deal.

And, quite frankly, the sooner that spreads to the southern states, the better.

photo credit: Cheap Fakes

These guys are a 5 piece band bringing old-school 70s funk (and fashion) into 2012, along with reggae, ska, latin and any other genres that take their fancy along the way.

The gig started with the instrumental Stoink (she writes, with the sort of mock confidence that comes from an inventive memory), and suddenly I had flashbacks to seeing Hypnotic Brass Ensemble live last year.

The first track off Hand Me Downs, the album they were launching that night, Stoink is brassy and funky, with a spattering of Sun Ra style cosmic sounds and a hip-hop attitude in the beat.

Songs melded into each other to keep the music coming, with guitarist and frontman - and all round impressive performer - Hayden Andrews soon taking to the mic, performing tracks from both their older album and the one that's just hatched.



"Stones and Sticks" is the title track from their 2010 album and it's been on high rotation in my car since the gig. Very cool track which went off live.

Other highlights for me were Fonk, Grand Ol' (or is that just because I can't stop playing it at home?), Cramped and All I Know.

As for that last one, I knew I'd heard it somewhere before. It was the same place I'd first heard about the Cheap Fakes - the Peach and Black Podcast.

This podcast is a terrific blend of intelligent, witty, musically informative and, at times, downright silly discussions, predominantly about Prince's music, but more recently expanding to associated artists and beyond. One of the guys who features on these podcasts is also in the band, and "All I Know" was the outro to one of their recent shows.

One of the tracks (I think it was Amp Crackle) had a beautiful Spanish vibe weaved strongly into yet another genre blend, that went beyond latin into almost a story-telling mode, that seemed to be about something taking place in the context of a bullfighting ring. Of course, that might have been because it was past my bedtime and I have a notoriously wild imagination, but I have a lot of time for any music that can create such rich scenes, even independent of the lyrics (that might be telling an entirely different story).

Bassist James Watson, along with Josh Appleby and Scott Bignell, kept the vibe true to that of a 60s or 70s style cop show in tracks like Goon Va Doon and Fonk. Josh was fantastic on tenor sax and Scott looked after trumpet and keys simultaneously - I still don't quite know how that works, but I don't care. It was awesome.

Damien Campbell clearly came with his own cheer squad from the regular cries of "drum solo!" from the audience, but fair enough too, because apart from a brilliant effort all night, when he did deliver on the solo, it was well worth the fuss.

Another favourite of mine, both live and now on their new album, "Sand on the Beach" is a really fun track that reminds me at times of The Cat Empire.



The boys have dates booked right through the year and are currently back up in Brisbane I believe, having just played a gig with Charles Bradley at Brisbane Powerhouse.  Word is that they'll be back in Melbourne in June, this time to play at The Corner, but with any luck they'll have cause to come down here between now and then as well.

So a fantastic night was no doubt had by all, upstairs at Bar Open last Friday night. My only regret is that I couldn't make it a bit earlier to see Ultravibralux play their set. I did catch their last song and they were clearly a great complement to the Cheap Fakes. I'll be keeping my eye out for their next gig, so hopefully will get to write more about them soon.

Ahh, the local scene. Sticky floors, drunk patrons, fun and friendly bands and fabulous live music.

Need to do more of it.

Boing Fwip! The Blanks visit The Forum

I'm a sucker for some a cappella.

photo credit: The Blanks 

It's true. For all my love of instrumental music, the ability to strip everything else away and create a variety of sounds with nothing but one's voice is a source of both fascination and great entertainment to me.

The Blanks may not be a household name, but any Scrubs fan will recognise them as the Worthless Peons - aka. Ted's band.

Written into the show because producer Bill Lawrence was such a fan of their work, the boys got a lot more exposure than they most likely would have otherwise, with their wacky blend of comedy and barbershop being a somewhat unique choice of genre, particularly when their song choices include TV theme songs from old cartoons and loveable 80's sitcoms.

So being a fan of both Scrubs and a cappella music, I was excited to head upstairs at the Forum Theatre to see The Blanks perform live on Wednesday night.

The sound man was already playing some background music as I took my seat - not particularly unusual of course, although the fact that the song playing was the ludicrous YouTube sensation, "Trololo", was indicative of the madness that awaited us.

The show was centred around the early revelation that there was a famous talent scout in the audience (despite them repeating the name at least a dozen times during the show, I've still managed to forget it) that had the potential to put them on Broadway, but their show had to tick so many boxes in order to make the cut. Thus the smooth transitions between songs, dramatic moments, audience connections, etc... were all played out, pantomime style, to demonstrate to this imaginary talent scout that they had what it takes to take their show all the way to the top.

These are very funny guys with witty improv skills who are, of course, extremely good at their craft.

Whether they were singing medleys of the aforementioned sitcoms and cartoons or performing the beautiful number, "A Little Polish", which Philip wrote for his grandmother's 80th birthday party (The Blanks' first gig), their harmonies were as lovely as they were clever.

The first half of the performance was quite Scrubs-focused. They clearly understood their audience and were happy to give us what we wanted, so we enjoyed almost all of the tunes that featured on the TV show, including the theme song, "Superman", as well as the Emmy-nominated gem (and my personal favourite), "Guy Love", which featured in Season 6, Episode 6, "My Musical".

The second half was more about what this quartet have done outside of Sacred Heart Hospital, including the intriguing integration of toys (sorry, "special guests") into their numbers. Taking a talking pumpkin and triggering it just so, to make it a fifth voice in the new Halloween anthem, aptly titled, "Happy Halloween" (incidentally the only thing the toy can say) is a lot more entertaining than it may sound. 

One particular section of the show was dedicated to connecting to the audience ("tick!"), where each band member told their absolutely true story. And how could you possibly doubt the handing down of the sacred toupee that, for generations, has brought success to a long line of eastern European pummel horse gymnasts?

I wonder if these stories could have been a little shorter, for as funny as they were, there did seem to be a distinct drop in energy with such a long gap between songs. That said, perhaps I am just sad that there was apparently no time for another of my favourite moments from Scrubs, their delightful cover of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". 

I dare say there might be another reason it didn't make the cut though, as it also fails to make an appearance on "Riding the Wave", the funny-cos-it's-true title of their album.

No doubt Ted, being a highly successful lawyer, knows the reason. What do you mean, his name's Sam and he's not a lawyer? 

In any case, it really was a very funny and entertaining evening. Their take on one of those "Time Life" style ads for a nostalgic compilation album that runs through 23 famous tracks in a couple of minutes (complete with voice over) was extremely impressive.

For their encore, The Blanks said that they'd prepared another medley, this time of traditional Australian folk songs, to celebrate their first tour down under. 

They lied. 

But that's ok, because it turned out to be a different sort of medley - and one that was thoroughly enjoyed by all, no doubt like the show itself. 

  

The guys did, in fact, get the all-important "Yes" from the big Broadway producer (gotta love a happy ending), but, despite their continued - and richly deserved - worldwide success, I hope they find it in their busy schedule to make it back down to Australia again soon. 

For anyone reading this in the northern states of Oz, check out their website or their Facebook page for details of the rest of their tour, including Brisbane on Wednesday 14th March and Sydney on Sunday 18th March.